Christmas spending strong with three shopping days to go

As the final Christmas shopping
weekend approaches, Paymark figures released today show a
positive return for retailers in the 21 days ending the 20th
of December, with a 4.7 per cent year-on-year spending
increase.

Paymark, which processes about 75 per cent of
all electronic transactions in New Zealand, saw just over
$3.2 billion through its network between 30 November and 20
December – $148.7 million more than the same period last
year.

Paymark CEO, Simon Tong says the results should be
welcome news for retailers as they begin their final push
for the last three full shopping days before
Christmas.

”It’s heartening to see the annual
year-on-year growth rate building through December and
climbing above the average for the year which was around 3
per cent.

”During the last seven days spending was up
5.8 per cent. This makes it one of the highest spending
weeks of the year and yesterday we broke through four
million transactions in one day for only the sixth time in
our history.”

Many regions throughout the country have
also shown particularly strong growth throughout December to
date. Back at the top of the list is Canterbury, up 6.4 per
cent or $22.8 million year-on-year. Auckland/Northland
(+5.2%), Hawkes Bay (+5.3%) and Wairarapa (+5.4%) have also
had a strong few weeks, with Auckland/Northland retailers
seeing an extra $65.9 million through their tills compared
to 2011.

It appears Kiwis are still hard at work on their
homes this Christmas, with floor covering and furniture
stores reporting spending growth of 20.6 per cent
year-on-year and garden stores and hardware/building supply
stores up 10.1 per cent and 10.3 per cent
respectively.

Many Kiwis may also need to loosen their
belt notches this Christmas as food and liquor retailers
reaped the benefits of the party season. Restaurants bars
and cafes were up 7.3 per cent year-on-year as well as
takeaway shops (+6.5%) and liquor retailers
(+11.5%).

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